Guidelines

I am one member of a five person board. The opinions I express on this forum are mine only, and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Escambia County Staff, Administrators, Employees, or anyone else associated with Escambia County Florida. I am interested in establishing this blog as a means of additional transparency to the public, outreach to the community, and information dissemination to all who choose to look. Feedback is welcome, but because public participation is equally encouraged, appropriate language and decorum is mandatory. Although this is not my campaign site for re-election--sometimes campaign related information will be discussed, therefore in an abundance of caution I add the following :








Wednesday, June 12, 2024

Some Disgusting Age-Inappropriate Books are being Removed Immediately from our Library



I'm a free speech Republican--always have been.  I say what I think and I stand by what I say.  Read this blog and you'll know that.

With this as the backdrop--I was contacted by a constituent yesterday who was distressed about some policy issues regarding the library in Bellview, District 1. (and other branches)

  So I called her and listened to her issue about several books that were/are ABSOLUTELY age-inappropriate being in the young adult section of the library. She told me Commissioner Kohler would not return her calls.

These books had pictures, discussed masturbation, sex, and also said that regardless of what some religions might preach on the topic of masturbation----that masturbation is not a sin and is normal.

Look, I'm not a prude, I don't believe in book burning, and I am a fairly open-minded individual.

BUT EVERYTHING has to be age appropriate and the job of discussing these sensitive topics like masturbation and how it is juxtaposed with religious beliefs--- to children------ belongs to the family and the parents---not liberal, woke rubbish masquerading as "children's" books in the children's section.

If a family wants to buy those sorts of books, they can.  This is America.

But I don't want to see this garbage in the kid's section of our public library. Period!

So, I immediately contacted Todd Humble and he sorted out the problem instantaneously.  Kudos to him.

Then I was forwarded this email from a group of constituents that were very pleased with the responsiveness of Todd and his team at the Libraries.  Here is the email:


"On Tue, Jun 11, 2024, 8:03 PM XXXXX<XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX> wrote:
Finally!  I have put in three calls now to Mike Kohler , and 1 to each of the other county commissioners. The only one who returned my call today was Jeff Bergosh. He told me that he would immediately contact the head of the Escambia County Public Libraries, Todd Humble, and have him call me. About 30 minutes later, that is exactly what happened. This guy is the real deal. They are removing several books that somehow , he said, trickled through. He has also called all his librarians (One is also no longer employed, btw.) and told them they had to start going through the books, especially in the Early Reader and Juvenile Section. Several of the ones that I shared with him (several parents had too) are going to be shredded. Others will be moved to the appropriate sections. I was so pleased with this conversation. I sent him links to the books that we have found in our public school libraries, in case he wanted to cross-reference. I also told him he has helped to avoid a major media situation.
This is the way things should be handled. Jeff Bergosh earned a lot of brownie points with me today, and so did this Library Director!
God is good.
XXXXXXX"


9 comments:

Mel Pino said...

Commissioner Bergosh, I'm going to refrain from further comment before asking you--are you aware who Vicki Baggett is?

Anonymous said...

I would like to see the list of the several books that are to be "shredded" from my local library.
Is that possible Councilman.

Anonymous said...

What are the book titles?

Jeff Bergosh said...

I only asked about what the objectionable content was and did not ask specifically what the title of the book(s) in question. The issue has been handled by staff as the email from the constituent affirmed.

Anonymous said...

Not only a ghost candidate but now your secretary? Are you that scared?

Jeff Bergosh said...

5:50--This string is about books, not movies. Get with the issue. And the movie isn't "Ghost Candidate" it's "Ghost Protocol" and yes there was a movie from, like, 1987 called "Running Scared." It was a comedy starring Gregory Hines. Now run along and feed the pigs, chickens and goats, Doug. Try not to step in any animal excrement and track it into your hubble.

Anonymous said...

Was it an encyclopedia you had removed? Take a look at what the Encyclopedia Britannica says about the subject. Please, before removing any more books, at least find out the title. It would also be prudent to research a book, before removing it from the library shelves. Escambia county is already the butt of the nation's jokes about library book removal. I would hope Commissioner Kohler and any other commissioners that were contacted, were doing their due diligence, and researching the books, before jumping the gun.

Anonymous said...

Commissioner,
Great job! This is a culture war that is being fought to corrupt our children. It is disguised as, "they are coming for our encyclopedias;" however, it really is "we want prepubescent children to think they have options as to which of the 72 genders they might be." See, if it is all biological, the youngsters, when they grow up only 2% will feel that way, but if the woke few inculcate the younglings on this at a young age, they hope they can make it 20%. As this is a Navy town, Hold the line on this. Don't let the lunatic fringe win on this here.

Jeff Bergosh said...

4:44--Thank you and you can take it to the BANK: I will hold the line on this.